Are you aware? Signing your death sentence with AIDS

I have AIDS.


But who knows? Maybe you unknowingly have one,too. We might never know because at ages 15 or 16, it doesn't exist in our world.


REMEMBERING 25M LIVES AT WORLD AIDS DAY


In an attempt to increase awareness of the disease and of the 33.4M people (around the world) haunted by HIV/AIDS today, the World Health Organization (WHO) established World AIDS Day and marked its 22nd year last December 1. It is a global effort to educate people about the "silent killer" disease, to urge its prevention and to also remember the more than 25M people who died since cases were first reported in 1981.


Themed, "Universal Access and Human Rights", WHO and the United Nations encourage the need to achieve universal access to HIV/AIDS services, which I believe should apparently call for the government's meager efforts to prevent AIDS especially among youth in the Philippines.

WHAT DO I CARE ABOUT AIDS?


For one thing, AIDS is somehow the half-brother of the epidemic dengue: by now it doesn't choose its victims and still has no official medical CURE. From the term itself, Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) attacks our immune system, leaving our body open-wounded and completely vulnerable to worse death-related plagues like cancer.


If not diagnosed early, HIV can evolve into AIDS (Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome), somehow a cousin of the Stage 3 of leukemia. But while this disease has alarmingly reached the age bracket of 20-29 years old in its victim's list, the development of Antiretroviral Treatments (ART) has slowed down the evolution of HIV to AIDS. That is, if the person had earlier detected it. The question would remain if that person even knows what AIDS is.


But then there is no 100% assurance from ART--certain side effects are still in the equation, and according to studies the notorious genetic mutation of the virus can only be overcome if the patient takes at least 3 drugs at the same time.


THE PAIN OF AIDS IS NOT YOUR WORST PROBLEM


Somehow the physical and painful after-effects of having HIV/AIDS may still be tolerable, given the continuous improvement of ART to possibly combat the disease. The real dilemma here, as recently surveyed, consists of 3 things: your job, your rights and your reputation.


1. In local studies, it has been reported that 6 out of 10 Filipinos lose their jobs because of having AIDS (mostly OFW's).


2. According to United Nations Development Program (UNDP) Director Renaud Meyer in his 2009 baseline study, 1 out of 2 Filipinos  had their rights abused. They were either isolated, quarantined, forced to submit themselves to medical processes, refused provision of basic health care services and denied with health/life insurances.


3. 1 out of 10 Filipinos was denied with job promotion, reported in a forum marking World AIDS Day last Wednesday. 1 out of 10 was also forced to change residence or not allowed with rent accommodation.

 

SPREADING AIDS A WORSE SIN THAN USING CONDOMS


The Vatican Church gave its reasonable argument: in Pope Benedict XVI's "Light of the World: the Pope, the Church and the Signs of the Times" excerpted in a Vatican newspaper last November 20, he stated that in special cases condom use might be justified as the first step towards moral responsibility for one's actions.


An article from the Philippine Daily Inquirer entitled, "Condoms lesser of 2 evils" also stated the use of condoms may still be rational compared to more immoral actions like abortion and spreading HIV/AIDS.


WILDFIRE SPREAD OF HIV


Sexual activities are basically the main cause of spreading HIV. But according to a DOH official interviewed at Tonight With Arnold Clavio last December 1 (QTV11), HIV can also be transmitted through the so-called "sharing of dirty needles", or even being injected with one. This is more dangerous because it involves direct contact with the blood circulating in our body. That's why no place is safe when it comes to thinking if we are really out of harm's way from AIDS or not. Even though one is not even engaged in sexual undertakings, he/she might still be diagnosed with a positive result of having HIV/AIDS.

Do I have AIDS? Do you have HIV? If we should ever do ourselves a big favor, we should simply be AWARE to steer clear from the deadly AIDS. Especially for us vulnerable youth, we should be careful and paranoid enough that there's a ghost disease lurking in our own backyards trying to rape us and to change our lives forever.